Three people have come up to me with questions. I am getting text messages on my phone. It seems SSPX Superior Bishop Bernard Fellay is in Rome to meet with officials of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to receive Pope Benedict’s decision concerning their mutual dealings with the “Doctrinal Preamble”.

You may recall that the Holy See gave this “Doctrinal Preamble” to the SSPX after a series of talks and exchanges. The SSPX proposed some modifications. We were waiting for the Holy See to respond again. It seems that the ball is being moved very quickly now.

The bottom line seems to be that, if Bp. Fellay accepts – for the SSPX – what Pope Benedict has decided, then they will be able to move forward to a formalization of a structure, etc. In other words, this is a huge turning point.

Bishop Fellay is indeed in Rome. de Mallerais will handle the SSPX Ordination of 8 young men in Winona, Mn on Friday. Hopefully his sermon will not attack the negotiations, but focus on the topic of Ordination and the priesthood.

latest from Rorate–Lombardi: Negotiations with the Society of Saint Pius X still in progress
Vatican City, 13.06.2012 (KAP) – The reintegration process between the Vatican and the “Society of St. Pius X” (SSPX) is, in the words of Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, “still underway”. Currently, there is no information on a decision, he told “Kathpress” on Wednesday. Not a false alarm–read other texts above this one.

My ‘main intention’ for my novena to the Sacred Heart (Chaplet and Litany of the same) is for the reconciliation of the SSPX with the Holy See. Also my Rosary.
May we get ‘good news’ soon!
And I hope no one ‘leaks’ anything prematurely-know what the saying is about ‘loose lips sinking ships’!

What could be sweeter than the events this week (thinking they’re sweeping the decks in advance of the extended Roman holiday for the summer…): the LCWR getting lectured on the History of the World Part 1 (IOW an ‘Attitude Correction’) and the SSPX coming to town to meet with the CDF (hopefully) for one of the last steps in reconciliation.

What a joyful time to contemplate the workings of the Holy Spirit as a result of the close of the Octave of Pentecost.

God doesn’t roll dice with the universe. Neither does He with His Church.

[1950 Rome time – Update] “The response of Benedict XVI to the ‘Lefebvrists’ not to be known before the weekend.” “Bp. Fellay will have some days to put his signature on the text” (SSPX spokesman Fr. Lorans, to Agence France Presse – LB2S Twitter feed (La Croix religion journalist) Lorans added that “it will be a week-10 days before further moves, today was just a step in the process” (A.Speciale Twitter feed)

O Lord Jesus Christ, who, when You were about to suffer, prayed for Your disciples to the end of time that they might all be one, as You are in the Father and the Father in You:

Look down in pity on the manifold divisions among those who profess Your faith, and heal the many wounds which the pride of man and the craft of Satan have inflicted upon Your people.

Break down the walls of separation which divide one part and denomination of Christians from another. Teach all that the See of St Peter, the Holy Church of Rome, is the foundation, centre and instrument of unity.

Open their hearts to the long-forgotten truth that our Holy Father, the Pope, is Your vicar and representative; and that in obeying him in matters of religion they are obeying You, so that, as there is but one holy company in heaven above, so likewise there may be but one communion, confessing and glorifying Your holy Name here below. Amen.- Bl. John Henry Cardinal Newman

GregH said: “Would an SSPX agreement mean anything to you practically? Would you start attending an SSPX chapel or going to retreats?”

It would have a very practical meaning to everyone. If my brother and my mother are feuding, am I going to feel less strongly about it because my brother and my mother don’t live next door to me?

If I were in a spaceship heading for Alpha Centauri, never to return home, and if I got an email letting me know that my family members had made up a feud, I would still feel immense relief and joy. How much more, when my brother is not just my brother genetically and by raising, but is a fellow member in Christ’s Body? How much more when it’s a matter of thousands of my brothers and sisters in Christ, and of many decades?

To be one Church, to have brothers live together in unity — that is the most practical thing in the world.

GregH said: “Would an SSPX agreement mean anything to you practically? Would you start attending an SSPX chapel or going to retreats?”

Selfishly, it would mean that I have a Latin Mass alternative only a couple of miles from the parish I have attended the last 6 years. More generally, it would mean the end of a rupture, and I hope it may mean more priests available to offer training in Latin to others.

@wmeyer: FYI, there is a FSSP parish in the Arch D. of Atlanta called St. Francis de Sales. Not sure how far drive time that is for you. I have a wonderful DVD of a Low and a High Mass celebrated by Fr. Robert Fromageot from that parish.

I concur with Irenaeus G. Saintonge’s opinion that a regularization of the SSPX would see an increase in parishioners at their chapel in our diocese here in Madison, Wisc. Although there are a handful of parishes which celebrate the TLM/EF in our diocese, we have no parish that is dedicated to the TLM/EF or is run by an order dedicated to the 1962 Missal and sacramental rites. Would be great if we did. The SSPX also have another chapel in Milwaukee area.

“‘Reintegration': the word is phony. The Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX) has never left the Church. She is within the heart of the Church. Where the authentic preaching of the Faith is, there is the Church. This ‘formalization’ of the FSSPX leaves me indifferent. We don’t need it, the Church doesn’t need it. We are at the top, as a sign of contradiction which draws valuable souls, which attracts many young priests despite our state of marginalization. We’d be placing our light under the bushel with our integration with the conciliar circle. This statute proposed to us of a personal prelature, similar to Opus Dei’s, is a statute for a state of peace. But we’re currently in a state of war in the Church. It would be contradictory to want ‘to regularize the war.’ […] The irregularity isn’t ours. It’s Rome’s. A modernist Rome. A liberal Rome that has renounced Christ King. A Rome that was convicted priorly by all the popes up until the eve of the council.”

This is wrong on so many levels I don’t even know where to begin. This man has been lobotomised, for Christ’s sake! It’s as if he never even went through seminary. I wonder what kind of lobotomisation, I mean, “formation” priests get at SSPX’s seminaries.

Does anyone still need to resort to the lukewarm “everything is fine” PCED letters to know whether the SSPX is schismatic? Isn’t it obvious, after statements like this, that they are? Is this the kind of people we are about to welcome within the Church and entrust souls to? If so, then suddenly these are not so good news any more…

“Interestingly, on his way into the building, Bishop Fellay crossed paths with Swiss Cardinal Kurt Koch, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity and president of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with the Jews.”

Rome-SSPX – Decisive moments? Pope’s response to be delivered to Bp. Fellay today [Updated]
Bishop Fellay, the Superior General of the Society of Saint Pius X (FSSPX / SSPX) will receive in the upcoming hours the papal response in Rome.* From Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli, writing for La Stampa – the excerpt below includes all new information:

After having studied with attention the text of the doctrinal preamble, with the modifications requested by the Superior of the Society of Saint Pius X, Benedict XVI would have made his decision and had delivered it to Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and to the Secretary of the same Dicastery, Archbishop Luis Ladaria Ferrer, during the audience granted to both last Saturday.

The text of the doctrinal declaration is a top secret, but it will be published – this was assured from the beginning – if an agreement between the Holy See and the Society founded by Archbishop Lefebvre is formalized. It is not possible to know, therefore, if modifications or clarifications were added to the text that Bishop Bernard Fellay had sent to Rome in mid-April and that the Cardinals had examined and discussed on May 15, in the Feria Quarta [Wednesday meeting] of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. In the upcoming hours, the papal response may be delivered to the Lefebvrian superior. It will be up to him to give final assent to the preamble. … If Fellay, after having received the Vatican response, signs the doctrinal declaration, the agreement will be officially announced.

In any event, the matter concerning the other three Lefebvrian bishops will remain open … . Even if the Superior of the [Society of] Saint Pius X signs the doctrinal declaration, the positions of the three bishops will be examined individually by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

What I should have said more clearly above was “. . . .Bp. Fellay is the duly elected Superior of the SSPX and his view are not necessarily those of Bp Tissier. But Bp. Fellay’s views represent the majority of SSPX members who elected him – I would hope!”

As the quotes from de Maillerais show, it’s hard to separate yourself from the Church and continue to think like Catholic. Just look at the Polish National Catholic Church, which only requires “private” confession for people under the age of 16, or the Old Catholic Church that ordains women and approves of homosexuality. And then there’s the Society and its disobedience. As history shows, schismatic groups aren’t protected from error and usually stray from core Catholic doctrines over time.

It’s only been 34 years, and de Maillerais talks like the Society has been in schism for hundreds. A few more decades and there might be nothing Catholic left about the society.

“A few more decades and there might be nothing Catholic left about the society.”

In fact, the SSPX has been growing every year since its founding in 1970. The Society has expanded rather rapidly and includes 550 priests and over 200 seminarians. The priests are distributed among the 6 seminaries and about 125 houses and churches, in 30 countries spread on the 5 continents.

acardnal,
I was referring to doctrine and attitudes, not numbers, as the examples in my post indicate. Without a magisterium, there’s nothing to protect the society from a generational shift towards heresy, just as we’ve seen with other groups that separated themselves from the Church (e.g. the Old Catholics and Polish National Catholic Church). While the society at present embraces Catholic teaching in many respects, comments like the quote from de Maillerais above remind me more of the 16th century reformers than any Catholic Saint:

“The irregularity isn’t ours. It’s Rome’s. A modernist Rome. A liberal Rome that has renounced Christ King. A Rome that was convicted priorly by all the popes up until the eve of the council.”

I agree regarding Tissier’s comments. But it appears from the report on the Rorate-Caeli site that the three problematic bishops will be dealt with on an individual basis by the CDF. Their status is open. See above.

An issue that will have to be dealt with in time is how they promote parishes that offer Mass in the EF. They list Masses offered by their priests. of course, but then they list non-SSPX Masses offered by other priests, and I’m not sure who these people are affiliated with. But it’s said that they promote further disunity, since they definitely don’t promote Masses offered by the FSSP, the ICKSP, or by other priests.

This is wrong on so many levels I don’t even know where to begin. This man has been lobotomised, for Christ’s sake! It’s as if he never even went through seminary. I wonder what kind of lobotomisation, I mean, “formation” priests get at SSPX’s seminaries.

It can’t be any worse than what I saw in priests from all over the world during my years in Rome.

Does anyone still need to resort to the lukewarm “everything is fine” PCED letters to know whether the SSPX is schismatic? Isn’t it obvious, after statements like this, that they are?

No, it’s not. I’ve heard like statements but from the liberal side for years.

Is this the kind of people we are about to welcome within the Church and entrust souls to? If so, then suddenly these are not so good news any more…

One of the impacts the integration of the SSPX would have is that instead of having their New York City Sunday Mass in the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ hostel, they could take over one of the underused churches in the diocese.

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